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Tuesday 18 December 2007 HAPPY CHRISTMAS! HELLO! Yes .. my yearly entry is finally here :D
Another year has flown by ... and how to sum it all up in one brief entry ... ? ... not even going to try .. so this is just to say thank you, as ever, for all your support this year and to assure you that the aforementioned promised EP is still in the making ... changing my mind about which tracks to include ... rewriting/remixing etc etc ... but expect to have it available for downloading from this site in the spring next year ... at the moment looks like there will be 4-6 tracks .. some collaborative, some solo ..
I'm still loving being back in London and, having lived away now, am making the most of all it has to offer .. not least the free lunchtime concerts given at the beautifully restored St Martin-in-the-Fields church where i recently was comletely spellbound and moved to tears by a wonderful singer called Solveig Slettahjel and her mesmerising band of musicians Slow Motion Quintet (no coincidence, that Morten Qvenild, piano/keyborad player for Susanna & the Magical Orchestra was part of the ensemble)
.. which led me to check out the artist/poet/singer Sidsel Endresen and buy her very inspiring album "out here, in there" , a collaboration with Bugge Wesseltoft ...
Days like that make it all worthwhile ...
I'm off to Cornwall for Christmas with friends and family .. renting a house together close by the sea .. so looking forward to cold crisp sunny days (hopefully!) bracing walks by the sea, great food and cosy fireside evenings watching dvds and playing silly games (I'm armed with the 40th anniversary edition of "The Jungle Book" yay!) ...
Hope you have a peaceful & happy time with people you love the best.
All the best for 2008
love Nicola xx
Sunday 28 January 2007 HAPPY 2007 Hello all
Just wanted to say Hi and Happy New Year.
I had a fantastic holiday in Italy and met some great people .. including some luurrve interest (which is always good!) .. so now I'm back, in wonderful London, feeling good and loving it.
I'm only part-moved from Devon just now .. so am working on a laptop and scaled down studio but the muse is good ... and new songs are flowing well ..
I'll be returning to devon to pack up the rest of my things and then will be re-installing my studio here in london next month ...
Also, looks like I'll be doing some more stuff with Chris Brann .. we've been emailing and both want to do more together - i find his music very inspiring - resonates with me on an emotional and physical level ..
Got into some great music while I was away which has rekindled my love for dance music and dancing ... free style ... so clubbing is back on the cards again i think ... just bought the new Luke Slater album which is becoming a morning favourite to get the energy up and going ..
Hope you're all doing well - needless to say my thanks goes out to you for your support .. and best wishes for a great year ahead ..
love
Nicola xxx
Monday 13 November 2006 on the move hello all
hope you are well this beautiful autumn day - love this time of year
Firstly want to thank you all for messaging and keeping the site going while i'm away ... and to ask that if you've any specific questions for me directly, you might get a quicker response by using the info@nicolahitchcock.com address. Apologies for my slowness to respond to messages via the board of late!
So ... my big news is that i've been in the process of sifting through all my belongings, packing up and moving back to London
yes, you probably guessed it was bound to happen given my preivious diary entries !! well, it IS so beautiful here, as i've said so many times before, so not an easy place to leave ... but I need a different kind of stimulation to nature now ... need to be amongst the rich diversity of cultures, peoples, arts .. all that great and inspiring stuff you get in London ... and I CAN'T WAIT !
So, making music has been on hold for a while, while i've been making plans and working towards the move
Next comes the packing up and actually doing it ...
I should be back in london by the end of this month
Then i'm back in Italy again for christmas and then back to London to start back in earnest on the new solo record - in a new studio ... with new inspiration ... amongst my closest friends and family ... with loads of great little vibey acoustic music venues nearby ...
thanks as always for your continued support ... if i should write & record anything worth posting up before january (and if i do it will be a small scratch demo kind of affair, so don't expect too much!) I'll post it up as a download ....
all the best
Nicola x
Friday 11 August 2006 happy holidays hello all
well ... i've just got back from three weeks away .. heaven ..
A week in the mountains in N/W Italy where I learned Qi Gong (Chi Kung) and met some wonderful people, ate delicious veggie food, drank local wines, basked about in the hot hot sun and lay down (a lot!) under tall trees, being gently caressed by warm mountain breezes. Oh, and had reflexology and massages in white tepees (sp?) that were dotted around the 100 acre grounds and danced on a hilltop to a great sound system under a multitude of stars on my birthday ... how good can life get?
I followed up this week (which felt like a month) with a couple of great weeks in London where I hooked up with old friends, had dinner, went to movies, took the tube up to Leicester Square, walked around Seven Dials, Covent Garden, had my "fortune" told in Mysteries (has to be done!) .... and I accidentally bumped into a friend I hadn't seen for 25 years! so there was A LOT of laughing and catching up to do (Hey Branca!). Such a strange experience .. so many memories and faces came flooding in that i hadn't thought of from that day to this.
Now it's back to Devon and time to get my head back into making music ... I'm working to finish a couple of tracks from Binary Finary. It's going well but still a fair bit to do.
So ... I'd better get on with it then!
Meantime, I hope you like the "new" and updated site - Bob's been working extra hard for me/us (thanks Bob) ! Haven't quite got my head around the new message board yet but will aim to post something up soon.
hope all's well wth you ... "see" you on the board sometime
love & thanks
Nicola xxx
Thursday 29 June 2006 cycle of life Hello all
hope this diary entry finds you well and enjoying life (it may be your last!)
There's been a lot going on for me the past few months ... a few months ago I lost one of my closest friends, Rachel. We met 10 years ago and it was like we'd always known one another - so much so that we were convinced we'd met before but going through all our mutual contacts, nothing came up. She was an amazingly courageous and strong woman. A writer, a poet, and someone with a huge amount of empathy and understanding - together with a really wicked sense of humour. She took no shit from anyone - she could be fierce but also so incredibly gentle and kind. She was always 110% in my corner on everything and a true soul mate.
So it's taking time (and some very strange times ... ) .. to adjust to her not being around. Although she is around - in the way that her influence on my life will always be with me -- it's as if i've internalised a part of her and that will never leave me. So i'm heartened by that knowledge and slowly coming to terms with the fact that physically I will never see her again. I wrote the song "heart" about and for her when she was very ill in hospital for nine months, three years ago. But she recovered well from that and was strong and doing well around the time she died. She died peacefully in her sleep in her own home, so that was a blessing. Although intensely personal stuff, I felt unable to just come on here and not mention her. I guess this diary entry is a way for me of honouring her amazing spirit and life.
I'm still living the village life and still have a love/hate relationship with it - miss city life - toy with the idea of going back one day but now I find i'm betwix and between - I love it when i go to london and i love it when i come home (never satisfied!) ! I've made a lot of good and kind friends here and there's no disputing it's truly beautiful here this time of the year, with the hedgerows like gardens and the sun dancing on the water ..... and all that stuff (!)
I've been working on several different projects lately. When I performed live in malta i met with Binary Finary, who were doing a dj set the same night, and we got on very well - we kept in touch since and they've recently sent me some very inspiring tracks to work to .. so that's ongoing and i think something very good will come from it.
I'm still writing & recording songs to release in the future .. I've gone back to writing on guitar for a while which has been very freeing - to get away from sitting in front of a computer and keyboard, and away from drum/click tracks ... and also means I can sit on my deck looking over the water with a nice glass of wine and just noodle away, recording ideas into my iPod as i go and scribbling down lyrics ... I think the songs may be closer in style to my solo album but the lyrics are stronger and closer to those I wrote within mandalay (but what do i know ?!) ....
I have a mind to put out an EP up or even individual tracks from time to time rather than record an album .. be good to hear/see your thoughts on that on the message board ...
I've also been having a go at writing songs for other artists, as covers, - encouraged by my publisher - which has been a lot of fun -- i'll keep you posted on that one!
So, that seems to be it for now .... thanks for keeping the message board going and as ever for all your support. good to see the mailing list building up nicely - thanks for joining. so let me know your thoughts about the idea of individual tracks/an EP ..
all the best
Nicola xxx
p.s. the T shirt idea has gone onto the back burner for now .... when i looked into it, in order to provide the range of sizes and quality i wanted it just wasn't going to be cost effective ... at the end of the day, i decided Tshirt/schmee-shirt - the music's the thing ..
Thursday 13 April 2006 oops April already ... long time ...
well i have yet to tell all about my trip to Malta ..
it was incredible ... 1500 people crammed in a smoke-filled club at 3.00 a.m. singing "in my memory" (a song i wrote almost 15 years ago!) back to me at the TOP of their voices .. and calling out my name ...
on the stage (well, actually more of a dancing platform than a stage in reality) before i went on were two bethonged young women dancing and twirling crosses with fire coming out of their ends - out of the ends of the crosses i mean ...
It was not what I'm used to ...
but it was fun ...
Lil Mario, the young promoter, worked so hard to put it all together and promised all sorts to get me there ... he'll probably go very far in this world, or whichever/whatever world he chooses (thanks Mario!)
I also want to say a big thank you to radio 1066 on Malta for giving me such a warm welcome and supporting my music.
it was an experience i won't forget in a hurry. Malta is a beautiful place, especially Valetta - i was sorry not to have enough time get over to see the island everyone talks about, with its beautiful clear blue waters - but that's something for next time ....
Thursday 15 December 2005 Happy Christmas Well, it's that time of year again AND tonight there is the most gorgeous moon - it's the highest in the sky that it's been for many years or will be again until about 2010 so they say ... worth checking out if you read this in time ..
I went out with my camera around sunset and took some inspiring pictures and recorded some sounds .... owls were hooting madly in the woods and a flock of geese flew in over the mill pool making an incredible noise!
I've got coal and firewood stacked up ready for the season, incense burning and candles lit soon as the sun's faded - lovely ...
Wishing you all a great Christmas and all the best for 2006.
love
Nicola x
Tuesday 1 November 2005 beautiful music - Englaborn Hi everyone
hope you all had a great Halloween
Thanks for your suggestions for the acoustic reworking of some existing tracks - they'll be coming on site as free downloads for members within the next month or two so keep cheking in and we'll also send a newsletter out when they're up.
I've been busy working on a track with Michael Brook - he of ambient guitar fame (and remixer of mandalay's "beautiful") .. it's quite hymnal, lots of layered harmonies - lyrically about the heart opening ....
realise this is more of a newsletter than a diary entry ... i'm trying not to mention the weather ... but it's pretty much most of what goes on down here in Devon!!
Actually, i go a bit stir crazy living down here from time to time and have to get up to London for a fix of city living -- but i'm usually always glad to come home again ...
Really, as a vibrant (in my dreams) and single person down here it's a struggle to have a decent social life - don't even think about it being exciting unless you're into something called 'swinging" - which i believe is most distasteful - or free dance expression - which is frankly scary - in totnes, town of the alternative therapists.
Oh dear, this is turning into a bit of a rant! BUT ..
It is exhilarating for me to hit Paddington station and see HOARDS of single people all milling about ON THEIR OWN!!! Sitting in cafes - ON THEIR OWN - drinking cappucinos and reading the Guardian - ON THEIR OWN !!!
... i keep hearing in the media that more and more single women are choosing to live on their own and not have children .... so
where are they all?
not in devon it seems - or if they are, they're wondering like me where everyone is ??
i wrote a lyric that will hopefully find a home someday
take me to a place my face fits in
leave me there til i am indistinct
take me there
where no one knows my name
i think you get the picture ...
You know what they say, "you can take the girl out of the city ... Definitely time for a trip "home" to London ....
love
Nicola
p.s. "englaborn" is the most beautiful album i've heard all year ... check it out if you can - heart & soul feeding music ...
Thursday 4 August 2005 blimey it's August already! Hello
I've decided i'm not making any excuses this time - none
It's 20.29 on a thursday and I'm sitting in my studio with a nice glass of red listening to the village church bells at full pelt and the rain pouring down - i've got the window open cos it's really muggy (see .... weather snuck in again, and only the first paragraph ... seems i just can't helpi it) ... oh, and one of the kids is crying next door (there are three under seven, so there seems to be always one in tears!). I live in a terraced house with very thin walls and my neighbours put up with all my music goings on so it works both ways. Ooh ... it's getting louder so i'm off to download some james Taylor from iTunes (thanks Paul for the reminder!) .. back soon ....
wouldn't you just know it - my internet connection's been really crap today and it's not working at the moment ... have to make do with something "old" (have exhausted Emiliana Torrini's album "love in the time ... " so something different ... don't you love her though?) .. ok.. Lemon Jelly ...
satisfied ...
so, i've been working on a couple of tracks for an exclusive release of Passive Ag in the USA ... one is a song called "everything" that i wrote and demoed (demod?) a while back .... found a great writer/producer/musician just up the road in Totnes to work with. The other track is "I Forgive Me" in it's original song arrangmenet ... my friends caroline lavelle (wonderful cellist, vocalist & songwriter) and Pat Orchard - ditto, only plays guitar - played on it. Don't worry if you've already bought a copy of the UK release as we'll find a way to make these extra tracks available to you ... but obviously after the release, which will be sometime in September. It's the first time i've ever produced and arranged for a track that's going to be commercially released so i'm pretty proud of myself ... hope you will be too!
What else ....
oh just downloaded "carolina in my mind" what a song ... don't write em like that anymore (am i showing my age? so am i bovverred? non) ... looking at his greatest hits it's so great looking at the timings ... all around 3 minutes .. no wastage or filler ... just the way i like em short and sooooo sweet
something to aspire to
was just "interrupted" by my sister on the phone .. she's been down here for a while and returning to London tomorrow.. i've got friends and family there and it's hard being so far away with the recent bombings and high security presence there etc.. i worry for them a lot
Oh, now "fire and rain" is playing ... got to go and listen with my all=ness, finish my wine, cook a meal and stuff
thanks again for all your support - betcha get bored of hearing that, but it's still meant, much as ever
love
Nicola
Monday 23 May 2005 p.s. forgot to say that i'm listening to a really great album at the moment called "someday we will foresee obstacles" by Syd matters
well worth checking out in my book
thanks very much to all for posting reviews on Amazon etc .... much appreciated
love
Nicola
Wednesday 18 May 2005 better late than never! is it sunny where you are??? Hello - yes, I know, what happened to the March and April entries?? All I can say is that there have been a lot of sick people in my village during the past few months - including me (what's going on?? I thought I moved down here for the clean air and healthy ions???!!)... anyways ......
Hopefully by now (yawn) I'm over the worst of it. So, apologies for late or non-existent replies to your messages .. and thanks to those of you that have been responding on my behalf (Sky, etc .. xx)
Well, what can I tell you? The response to Passive Aggressive has been more than i'd hoped for and i really thank all of you who've ordered copies direct from me (or purchased via Itunes, CD Baby etc) it's great for me to see who you are, where you're from etc etc .. so sending those out has kept me busy and happy.
Where oh where is the Spring/Summer in the UK??? Sorry to talk about the weather (well, I am English after all) BUT .... it's been sooo gloomy - rain and more rain and grey grey skies ... hope it's been sunny where you are ... if it has, send us a warm hazy message on the board to cheer us all up over here ..
I've recentlly hooked up with an old friend & fellow musician, Pat Orchard, who now lives in Plymouth, a few miles downt the road. We go way back and played in a band together when we both lived in London. I've done some vocals on a track of his & am hoping to put a sample/mp3 up on the site when he's ready with his mix (c''mon Pat!!).
The studio saga goes on - still having teething problems with my new setup - so if any of you live in the SW and know of a good engineer who knows Protools, please let me know ... Meanwhile there's a wonderful shop in Totnes (nearest town to me) which sells all kinds of stuff including various musical instruments and every so often (actually whenever i go in - so it's a bit dangerous) i buy a load of stuff. The other week I bought a handful of beautiful little bells, only about an inch high, all with delicately different tunings and sounds, a "baby" bodhran and a glockenspiel - I'm gradually getting a great collection of percussive/acoustic instruments together ...
Can't think of much else to tell you at the moment ... the Q&A's will eventually be posted to a separate page on the site and there will be a facility where you can post specific questions .. so that will be an ongoing thing for the future ..
Hope life is good for you
bring on the SUN !!
love
Nicola x
Thursday 24 February 2005 flow Hello
It's nearly the end of February already and well overdue for a diary entry! It's freezing cold down here in Devon but unlike the rest of the country we've seen no snow ... shame, I was really looking forward to it. But the mill pool was partly frozen over for a couple of days with a few stunned looking seagulls standing around on it.
I'm excited now about the album coming out, it's very close now... I've just done the final proof read of the artwork & lyrics and it's been mastered so, It's REAL ... I hope you're going to like it and that it's been worth the wait.
I'm still putting together my new studio -- just had to bite the bullit and admit that the room I chose, for its beautiful view, is just way too small ... everything is crammed in there but there's hardly room to sit a guitar on your lap!! SO .... i've got to start all over again in another room and paint it first etc etc ... so, it continues..
Meanwhile I've met some very interesting musicians down here who I would love to collaborate with, so this may mean more collaborations - working on tracks for their albums - or wortking with some great musicians & co-producers etc for my new album ... or both! Anyway, this part of the country seems to be teaming with musical talent so I really feel my move here was the best thing I could've done. Apart from the fact that it is so beautiful, with the sea so near and the moor ... I have really slowed down (as you've probably been aware!) and am a much more chilled and happier person. There are so many children in my life now, which is also wonderful - just made friends who have children, which I didn't have in London... so I am an adopted auntie now and loving it.
I've just finished a talk and workshops at a local college of art, with 2nd and 3rd year music students, which was a very humbling and inspiring experience - never done anything like that before and (although I was mega-nervous doing the talk!) it felt really good. I was taught by the students as much as i was teaching them - it was a very uplifting experience.
Thanks again for your questions - up on the site now - they really helped me focus .. there is a biog formed as a result, which will be posted up at some point ....
I'm going to go to the message board now and catch up with some of you.
Just to let you know, if you don't already, the new album will be available to buy and/or download on my site ... sooooon!
thanks again for your support, hope life is good with you
Nicola x
Wednesday 5 January 2005 positivity Well .... hello ...
I'm sitting in bed writing this on my laptop from my beautiful home in Devon, feeling very blessed. I woke up with a tune and lyric in my head this morning and, for the first time in a very long time, went downstairs to get my guitar and some batteries for my old cassette walkman/recorder, and played and sung until i'd got the bones of a new song together. Honestly, I haven't written anything on the guitar since my solo days .... so it felt really good, like a homecoming almost. It's a strange little thing .... sort of a cross between The Innocense Mission and Leonard Cohen! Weird. Anyhow, it may turn out to be a "stepping stone" song .. but it felt good all the same. Once I've finished putting my new studio together I'll have some fun fleshing it out a bit.
At the moment I'm really enjoying listening to more folk based music, like Tin Hat Trio -- I really love the organic scraping of violin and the breathy bellows of the accordion etc ....
so god knows what my - eventual - solo album will sound like at the end of the day!
I realise I've been pretty freaked out about it - so the chance to do all the collaborations I've been doing has been gratefully received .... i've been freaked out because I so loved Saul's soundscapes and he was so talented at manipulating sound electronically ... such an original "voice" .... I felt daunted, that I needed to at least produce to the sam standard ... but, guess what?? I can't possibly do what he'd do ... so it's just me i'm afraid .. but i'm sure all the influences he brought to Mandalay have rubbed off on me ...
So, it's playtime again for me and I'm - finally - looking forward to it!
I have some music from Hector to work on - we were meant to be doing a whole album together but my health got bad .. and i was concerned that i should be spending time on my new album ... bla bla bla (hmmm.... not so sure this is very interesting but i've started now so... ) ....
ANYWAY .... now i think "what does it matter?" - the whole beauty of downloading is that it's track by track rather than whole albums, so i can work on a track of Hector's next to an operatic piece if I want to ... no worries ... (that's my opinion anyway?!)
Right, this ramble has to stop now. It's a beautiful day out there so I'm off for a walk by the water with my camera.
Happy new year again to one and all and thanks again for all your support.
love
Nicola
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